I was at the annual New Year's party for the JABC in January when I saw a poster, "For the Love of Bacon", advertising a bacon and beer paring to be held at the Pig and Pickle in Concord. Now, my chosen family niece LOVES bacon, has a hard-on for beer and her birthday was coming up in a week so I thought to myself, "What a great birthday present that would be for her." So I made up a birthday card with the image of the poster on it that was an invite to go to the pairing the following month on Valentine's Day.
Pig and Pickle poster
photo by Styrous®
She was VERY delighted when we gave her the card with the invitation and raring to go, as we all were. The restaurant had two dinner seatings, one at 5 and one at 7 PM with no reservations taken; first come, first served, no problem. So, we planned on going to the 5 O'clock seating on Valentine's Day.
The day of the event, we were excited but because of work we were kind of late and knew we wouldn't make the 5 PM seating so we shot for the 7 PM one. We left Alameda for Concord around 6 but we got lost and didn't get to the restaurant until after 7. We were told it was sold out.
Obviously disappointed, we thought we'd make the best of the situation and looked around to see what was available there in Concord.
photo by Styrous®
photo by Styrous®
dining room
promotional photo (Oh, my!)
We didn't really want to go to a movie and a restaurant that couldn't decide if it served Mexican or Spanish food seemed a bit risky so we beat a hasty retreat.
We couldn't find anything else in Concord that looked interesting, so, we headed back to Oakland where we knew we could find good food (Oakland's come up in the world of culinary art) and have a good time as well.
On the way back to Oakland, I remembered there was a tiki bar in Alameda I'd always wanted to try. This is where things really went awry. Now, all my life I'd considered tiki bars tacky until one opened near my studio. It was called Tiki Tom's and it WAS tacky but we had the best times there. The food was guaranteed to harden the arteries in seconds. We used to call it, "Tacky Tom's" until it burned down (see link below).
So, we changed direction and headed ourselves off to Alameda to hit the tiki bar there which is called the Forbidden Island.
on the sidewalk in front of the Agave Grill
photo by Styrous®
We couldn't find anything else in Concord that looked interesting, so, we headed back to Oakland where we knew we could find good food (Oakland's come up in the world of culinary art) and have a good time as well.
On the way back to Oakland, I remembered there was a tiki bar in Alameda I'd always wanted to try. This is where things really went awry. Now, all my life I'd considered tiki bars tacky until one opened near my studio. It was called Tiki Tom's and it WAS tacky but we had the best times there. The food was guaranteed to harden the arteries in seconds. We used to call it, "Tacky Tom's" until it burned down (see link below).
So, we changed direction and headed ourselves off to Alameda to hit the tiki bar there which is called the Forbidden Island.
The interior of the bar is truly a typical, tacky tiki bar in every way. Its decor is finished off with electrified Tetraodontidae (blow fish) lamps.
tiki
Forbidden Island tiki bar
guacamole with ROUND corn chips
Forbidden Island tiki bar
Forbidden Island tiki bar
photo by Styrous®
We ordered guacamole with ROUND corn chips, a truly tip-top 'n tacky touch!
guacamole with ROUND corn chips
Forbidden Island tiki bar
photo by Styrous®
It wasn't all that great an experience, however, it took 45 minutes for us to get our drinks (I had my usual Jack Daniels, neat). Now how long does it take to pour a shot into a glass with no ice? And when I got my drink, it was in a glass that hadn't been washed; it was pretty groady (bet you haven't heard THAT word in a while). I didn't want to be a party pooper and I didn't want to wait another 45 minutes for another drink so I didn't say anything. I just dipped my napkin into my Jack Daniels (fortunately, with no ice, it was pure alcohol) and wiped the class clean with it. I know, I know, hepatitis (plural: hepatitides), etc.
To be fair, the music the DJ was playing was pretty cool lounge, jazz and other mellow sort of music which was very relaxing, so there was that. After we downed our drinks we decided just to go back to the studio and cook up our own dinner of pasta with mussels, which is what we should have done in the first place.
mussels with pasta
photo by Styrous®
From that point on it was smooth sailing and we talked, laughed and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the rest of the evening. We were good friends having a good time. What more could any one ask on a special day like this?
Maybe a little bacon?
Styrous® ~ Saturday, February 21, 2015
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